Seriously? People are still trying to argue this? You know, because Apple didn't already try to license the OS before...
Apple exists today because they aren't part of the race to the bottom. They sell hardware, and make a nice penny off it. They make good software to justify charging for their expensive hardware and this process serves them and their userbase just swimmingly. Please continue paying half the price, and having the discount software experience as well (why the hell would you switch if you didn't think the option was better than what you have currently? This is how capitalism works - you get what you pay for)
Apple has no reason to license their OS, and as an Apple user I hope they don't. I don't mind paying more for their product and I don't want the quality to drop because some people simultaneously complain they can't use the allegedly "better" option because they don't think it is worth paying more for. It's worth more to me and many others. If it isn't to you, stick to paying for the cheap computers and stop whining already.
This is not to say I'm not for Apple lowering prices, of course I would be, but I don't consider what they ask now to be an unreasonable difference between other manufacturers because to me I'm truly getting something better and it is far and away worth the $
They all wrap WebKit, there are SDK terms against writing apps that incorporate new language interpreters (I think)... which is why there is no Flash, Java, or Javascript.
What others also don't seem to understand, is that a lot of people don't want the "depth and complexity" in portable gaming to begin with. Honestly, thats what my PS3 is for. Although I will admit both the PSP and DS have many very high quality games, full console AAA quality - I simply have no desire to bend my neck over a portable screen for an extended period of time. Short bursts are why the iPhone games excite me.
Additionally, you complain about quality and depth now, but if you don't remember - the DS was a wasteland when it came out in terms of actually having good games. Look at it now. Devs learn and evolve to push the platform and see what works and doesn't. I don't see why the iPhone is somehow doomed to be different and ONLY offer trivial games for now. Existing game types might not control the same, but that just means we'll get new game types that are well suited to the input like Nintendo traditionally forces developers to learn with their new platforms and control schemes.
Not to be pessimistic, but I just don't get the whole netbook fad. I can basically say everything you did about a larger netbook to regular netbooks compared to say an iPhone or Android or Blackberry. These are pocket sized, often have highly optimized apps for a given task (such as a bus schedule) and only require carrying around one device that chances are I'd have in my pocket anyway.
I mean, sure you could say "what if I have to code bla bla bla on the go..." well, to that I'd say I'd just rather have my real 15" laptop if I have to do serious work. Sure, maybe heavy usage on an iPhone will diminish the battery much faster but phone batteries will surely advance to the point this no longer is much advantage in light of access to a regular recharge.
I see netbooks sticking around, and like their somewhat successful effort at bringing Linux mainstream, but as smartphones advance I can't see them being much more than a niche market. Although I'm not an analyst, my iPhone already does more than enough tricks for my on-the-go computing needs.
Last time I checked, IE is long dead on the Mac, non-existent on Linux, and Chrome isn't available for either yet so I'm not sure how you expect them to benchmark OS X and Linux too.
While I had that issue when my 360 RROD'd in 2007 (a little less than a year after owning it) - they have now simplified the process and you can do it through the console without calling anyone from what I've seen on my friends boxes (since I have liquidated all my 360 gear in favor of a PS3 due to reliability)
As for when we move full to digital... I don't see myself ever giving that up. Sure, I'll go for Valve games on Steam because they are not the type I'd ever sell - and I'll even bite when they have those $5 deals... but by and large there is no way in hell I'm going to not get a disc for my now $60 game. The ability to resell my property is not something I'm willing to give up, even though I largely don't anyway.
In my experience, the Dock is one of the things I miss the most when using Windows. The taskbar just isn't as good at managing a lot of different things at a time. You can't determine anything about it without stopping and reading (unless by some stroke of luck the windows aren't rearranging themselves quite frequently), everything is tiny, its trying to do so much with so little.
Its just a mess compared to window management in OS X. The Dock quickly shows what is running or what you probably want to launch with gigantic, recognizable out of the corner of your eye graphics. The document-centric UI model of the Mac and Expose + App Hiding is just so much faster for me than trying to do things with the Windows Taskbar and the god-awful alt-tab solution (even that is better on the Mac...)
Ripping off the Dock is probably the single most exciting thing about W7 so far, although all around it I see MS adding their usual bloat. Windows waste so much space with their gigantic borders, transparencies that don't really help usability, tiny text with gigantic graphics that don't match - I wish MS would learn from the earlier OS X mistakes too.
I'm not going to get into your theory, but as a web developer, anything that gets people to move from IE6 is a good thing to me. Like MobileMe, if Gmail is going to be the next huge webapp that helps move the web to a baseline of IE7, I'm all for it. We need the big companies and apps to push the change otherwise it will never happen.
Um.. I'm just going to have to disagree with you on that. You cannot bitch and moan because OS X doesn't behave like Windows or KDE (which are arguably very similar in terms of their needless complexity when it comes to UI paradigms).
Seriously, a + is difficult and somehow unintuitive? How about File -> New, or Command + N?
Or if you'd just prefer a large unwieldy button that ads to the problem regarding consistency and too much shit on the screen with KDE and Windows...
You just can't use a Mac and expect it to be Windows. You'll be frustrated if you can't get over this part. When I got my first Mac in 2004, I used it at the same time as my PC and had similar issues overcoming things I'd expect to behave like Windows. I decided I'd stop using Windows to try to get over the baggage in expectations I'd have, and now 4 years later I go insane having to deal with some of the idiotic UI issues that plague Windows. Just compare System Preferences to Control Panel...
I can't comment on the Aperture/network backup issue but...
10.5 has a unified Finder, all windows behave the same at all times... although I think you can still make them unique they default to however you chose to display the last window.
As for the mice... plug in a USB mouse. Its not that hard, and I have never seen one that is unsupported. Additionally, for laptops use two finger clicking. Two fingers on trackpad + click = right click. I find this is even faster/comfortable than having a button since you never have to look or worry about hitting the wrong one.
Similarly, if you are challenged editing text files... well nobody can help you there. Seriously, pico/etc/hosts ? Its not that hard, and there are an abundance of great text editors for the Mac.
I have to say I completely disagree, I used Windows from 3.11 to XP and DOS before those... and in my mere four years of using OS X I have never had a more trouble-free computing experience. The attention to detail is astounding and once you stop expecting it to work like Windows (such as mucking around in obscure settings dialogs) it for the most part DOES "just work" and DOES get the hell out of my way.
As for not finding good open source Applications... I don't understand that either. I've been amazed at the quality of some of the completely free Apps here (Adium, Cyberduck, Colloquy, Drosera, NoobProof, Burn, ClamXav, EZ 7z, UnrarX, MacPar, MAMP, NicePlayer, Max, PureFTPd Manager, Transmission)... they do a great job following HIG guidelines and I've yet to find a function I couldn't find an App for even though in some cases I do choose to pay for reasonably priced software (Acorn, Cheetah 3D, MoneyWell, LineForm, OmniGraffle, CSSEdit, TextMate, PandoraJam among them...)
No free utilities is a bunch of crap. As for for-pay apps I know this is/. but I find the level of Polish for Mac Shareware a step above that of Windows. Your usage may vary but I hear a lot of unfounded claims...
Well.. to be fair, Apple's widgets are mostly just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which runs with WebKit... although some have some more OS X specific plugs in them - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboard_(software)
They have also been shown to run right in the browser, so hopefully KDE will be able to support them too.
That might explain why really old systems like the Sega Masters System still get love in Brazil... I think they manufacture the games there and there's not a whole lot of barrier to develop for it.
Normally I would agree... but as a web developer, the thought of millions of users getting a drastically better browser than the IE garbage they are probably using is something I personally like quite a bit. Sure they probably won't even notice it is there but they might just use it afterall.
I think the system in place is pretty good. Would you really want to have to read "one source says..." every other sentence of an article? That would be horrendous. They have a citation, and you can see the value of the source yourself.
Sure, if you consider party games the epitome of gaming... I, and many others however don't. I know plenty of people who bought a Wii with all the hype, and months later they don't play anything. The games lineup it has going aside from a handful of games is utter disposable crap. Third party sales are for the most part garbage, and it doesn't help people buy the Wii for Wii sports and almost Wii sports alone.
Nintendo got it right in terms of a successful product, but the jury is still out on its quality as a gaming console. It has little to no online capabilities, is yet again a machine strictly for Nintendo games, and aside from selling like hotcakes has yet to convince me what the fuss is about. In a house of five, we have two Wiis and they both go totally unplayed.
All bashing aside, I think Sony got it right. Their machine won't explode on you like the 360, its a future proof, very stable and quiet machine. Now its finally $399, PSN has a huge amount of quality independent games in the market and pipeline for often less than 360 XBLA games cost (not to mention a significantly smaller DRM headache, user swappable hard drive, and no bullshit "Points" unit - things cost dollars and cents and don't trap you into having unspent points remain). Developers are really starting to come around to getting things right with the Cell (see the amazing 1st party Uncharted and Rachet, and Ubi and Crytek developers recently), they have awesome storage capacity in Blu-Ray and a standard Hard Disk, and PSN while not as polished yet as XBL doesn't handicap developers with arbitrary game size-limits thanks to a gimped HDD-less version and keep developers like Epic from allowing free AND user-created content.
All my friends would much rather play Guitar Hero, Rockband, CoD4 than anything on the Wii (and before you mention GH3 or Rockband Wii... there are no downloadable tracks for either which for Rockband is a HUGE missing feature). Additionally, I see way more promise in games like Calling All Cars, PixelJunk Monsters, and Little Big Planet than anything I've seen on the Wii yet. And these games will/do cost around $8 - $10 on PSN.
Then again,./ loves to chirp the "Gameplay not Graphics" line while totally disregarding the fact that PS3 and 360 have both over the Wii - but its easy to hate Sony and MS compared to Nintendo right, even when the Wii is totally disregarding all the "fun" with the exception of a few GameCube ports and the same old Nintendo games you've been playing since the N64./gamer-rant (who had to deal with 3 dead original Xbox's and a now-dead 360 and a horrendous MS customer support experience
Unless you are playing the Mac or Linux version - where the game is pretty much unplayable garbage. I guess serverside accomplishments are one thing but I think developers like Blizzard and the guys behind Vendetta Online who are doing big multiplatform, native releases are much better than what CCP does with this TransGaming bullshit. Now if only Blizzard would hop on the Linux train considering the game runs in OpenGL already.
I disagree almost entirely. As someone who mostly buys on ebay, but sells occasionally I think this is a horrible idea. Many times, buyers don't even give the seller a chance to resolve things - and I'm not inclined to leave feedback until I know whoever has purchased from me is satisfied and I'm no longer obligated in any way to them. Not that I've had any bad feedback yet, but since my unique feedback isn't even 100 yet I'd rather not something accidental happen between me and a buyer that might screw that up if the buyer happens to be a nitwit.
1) Its cheaper, about $.20 per track with good quality 2) Its instant... can't get a CD on demand without either driving to get it or waiting for shipping 3) I can re-download the tracks any time I want as many times as I want
Although #3 has failed, when the label pulls their artists from emusic (such as happened with Catch 22) I can no longer re-download them even though I did purchase them.
Overall, I've been happy enough to deal with the small shortcomings, though I still do buy many CDs, unless its my favorite bands ever when I can get them from emusic I do so to save money.
Re:This is disturbing for cross-platform devs.
on
Intel Purchases Havok
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· Score: 1
I don't think that'll really be an issue. Seriously, all three consoles are using PowerPC, and chances are their successors will too because it makes backward compatibility easier. You think Sony's ever going with an Intel chip? The console games market is way bigger than the PC market, and I'm sure Havok makes more money from their console business than the PC and it would be foolish for them to ruin that and give the market to competitors like Ageia who would gladly steal it.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously? People are still trying to argue this? You know, because Apple didn't already try to license the OS before...
Apple exists today because they aren't part of the race to the bottom. They sell hardware, and make a nice penny off it. They make good software to justify charging for their expensive hardware and this process serves them and their userbase just swimmingly. Please continue paying half the price, and having the discount software experience as well (why the hell would you switch if you didn't think the option was better than what you have currently? This is how capitalism works - you get what you pay for)
Apple has no reason to license their OS, and as an Apple user I hope they don't. I don't mind paying more for their product and I don't want the quality to drop because some people simultaneously complain they can't use the allegedly "better" option because they don't think it is worth paying more for. It's worth more to me and many others. If it isn't to you, stick to paying for the cheap computers and stop whining already.
This is not to say I'm not for Apple lowering prices, of course I would be, but I don't consider what they ask now to be an unreasonable difference between other manufacturers because to me I'm truly getting something better and it is far and away worth the $
They all wrap WebKit, there are SDK terms against writing apps that incorporate new language interpreters (I think)... which is why there is no Flash, Java, or Javascript.
What others also don't seem to understand, is that a lot of people don't want the "depth and complexity" in portable gaming to begin with. Honestly, thats what my PS3 is for. Although I will admit both the PSP and DS have many very high quality games, full console AAA quality - I simply have no desire to bend my neck over a portable screen for an extended period of time. Short bursts are why the iPhone games excite me.
Additionally, you complain about quality and depth now, but if you don't remember - the DS was a wasteland when it came out in terms of actually having good games. Look at it now. Devs learn and evolve to push the platform and see what works and doesn't. I don't see why the iPhone is somehow doomed to be different and ONLY offer trivial games for now. Existing game types might not control the same, but that just means we'll get new game types that are well suited to the input like Nintendo traditionally forces developers to learn with their new platforms and control schemes.
Not to be pessimistic, but I just don't get the whole netbook fad. I can basically say everything you did about a larger netbook to regular netbooks compared to say an iPhone or Android or Blackberry. These are pocket sized, often have highly optimized apps for a given task (such as a bus schedule) and only require carrying around one device that chances are I'd have in my pocket anyway.
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who thinks this way either... http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/the-iphone-and-ipod-touch-apples-netbook.ars
"Seriously, what's the point?" :)
I mean, sure you could say "what if I have to code bla bla bla on the go..." well, to that I'd say I'd just rather have my real 15" laptop if I have to do serious work. Sure, maybe heavy usage on an iPhone will diminish the battery much faster but phone batteries will surely advance to the point this no longer is much advantage in light of access to a regular recharge.
I see netbooks sticking around, and like their somewhat successful effort at bringing Linux mainstream, but as smartphones advance I can't see them being much more than a niche market. Although I'm not an analyst, my iPhone already does more than enough tricks for my on-the-go computing needs.
Last time I checked, IE is long dead on the Mac, non-existent on Linux, and Chrome isn't available for either yet so I'm not sure how you expect them to benchmark OS X and Linux too.
While I had that issue when my 360 RROD'd in 2007 (a little less than a year after owning it) - they have now simplified the process and you can do it through the console without calling anyone from what I've seen on my friends boxes (since I have liquidated all my 360 gear in favor of a PS3 due to reliability)
As for when we move full to digital... I don't see myself ever giving that up. Sure, I'll go for Valve games on Steam because they are not the type I'd ever sell - and I'll even bite when they have those $5 deals... but by and large there is no way in hell I'm going to not get a disc for my now $60 game. The ability to resell my property is not something I'm willing to give up, even though I largely don't anyway.
In my experience, the Dock is one of the things I miss the most when using Windows. The taskbar just isn't as good at managing a lot of different things at a time. You can't determine anything about it without stopping and reading (unless by some stroke of luck the windows aren't rearranging themselves quite frequently), everything is tiny, its trying to do so much with so little.
Its just a mess compared to window management in OS X. The Dock quickly shows what is running or what you probably want to launch with gigantic, recognizable out of the corner of your eye graphics. The document-centric UI model of the Mac and Expose + App Hiding is just so much faster for me than trying to do things with the Windows Taskbar and the god-awful alt-tab solution (even that is better on the Mac...)
Ripping off the Dock is probably the single most exciting thing about W7 so far, although all around it I see MS adding their usual bloat. Windows waste so much space with their gigantic borders, transparencies that don't really help usability, tiny text with gigantic graphics that don't match - I wish MS would learn from the earlier OS X mistakes too.
I'm not going to get into your theory, but as a web developer, anything that gets people to move from IE6 is a good thing to me. Like MobileMe, if Gmail is going to be the next huge webapp that helps move the web to a baseline of IE7, I'm all for it. We need the big companies and apps to push the change otherwise it will never happen.
Um.. I'm just going to have to disagree with you on that. You cannot bitch and moan because OS X doesn't behave like Windows or KDE (which are arguably very similar in terms of their needless complexity when it comes to UI paradigms).
Seriously, a + is difficult and somehow unintuitive? How about File -> New, or Command + N?
Or if you'd just prefer a large unwieldy button that ads to the problem regarding consistency and too much shit on the screen with KDE and Windows...
You just can't use a Mac and expect it to be Windows. You'll be frustrated if you can't get over this part. When I got my first Mac in 2004, I used it at the same time as my PC and had similar issues overcoming things I'd expect to behave like Windows. I decided I'd stop using Windows to try to get over the baggage in expectations I'd have, and now 4 years later I go insane having to deal with some of the idiotic UI issues that plague Windows. Just compare System Preferences to Control Panel...
I can't comment on the Aperture/network backup issue but...
10.5 has a unified Finder, all windows behave the same at all times... although I think you can still make them unique they default to however you chose to display the last window.
As for the mice... plug in a USB mouse. Its not that hard, and I have never seen one that is unsupported. Additionally, for laptops use two finger clicking. Two fingers on trackpad + click = right click. I find this is even faster/comfortable than having a button since you never have to look or worry about hitting the wrong one.
Similarly, if you are challenged editing text files... well nobody can help you there. Seriously, pico /etc/hosts ? Its not that hard, and there are an abundance of great text editors for the Mac.
I have to say I completely disagree, I used Windows from 3.11 to XP and DOS before those... and in my mere four years of using OS X I have never had a more trouble-free computing experience. The attention to detail is astounding and once you stop expecting it to work like Windows (such as mucking around in obscure settings dialogs) it for the most part DOES "just work" and DOES get the hell out of my way.
As for not finding good open source Applications... I don't understand that either. I've been amazed at the quality of some of the completely free Apps here (Adium, Cyberduck, Colloquy, Drosera, NoobProof, Burn, ClamXav, EZ 7z, UnrarX, MacPar, MAMP, NicePlayer, Max, PureFTPd Manager, Transmission) ... they do a great job following HIG guidelines and I've yet to find a function I couldn't find an App for even though in some cases I do choose to pay for reasonably priced software (Acorn, Cheetah 3D, MoneyWell, LineForm, OmniGraffle, CSSEdit, TextMate, PandoraJam among them...)
No free utilities is a bunch of crap. As for for-pay apps I know this is /. but I find the level of Polish for Mac Shareware a step above that of Windows. Your usage may vary but I hear a lot of unfounded claims...
Well.. to be fair, Apple's widgets are mostly just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which runs with WebKit... although some have some more OS X specific plugs in them - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboard_(software)
They have also been shown to run right in the browser, so hopefully KDE will be able to support them too.
While not the perfect solution, Comet/Ajax Push does exist right now as demonstrated by apps such as Meebo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(programming)
That might explain why really old systems like the Sega Masters System still get love in Brazil... I think they manufacture the games there and there's not a whole lot of barrier to develop for it.
Normally I would agree... but as a web developer, the thought of millions of users getting a drastically better browser than the IE garbage they are probably using is something I personally like quite a bit. Sure they probably won't even notice it is there but they might just use it afterall.
Does this mean that someone will finally make a proper Mac and Linux build without the Transgaming garbage ;)
Pennywise is also releasing their next album for free (via MySpace - shudder) later this month. Still, free nonetheless.
I think the system in place is pretty good. Would you really want to have to read "one source says..." every other sentence of an article? That would be horrendous. They have a citation, and you can see the value of the source yourself.
Game utilizes Transgaming's Cider, which means a buggy, non-native piece of slow running crap like every other Cider game I've played...
Sigh. Please, bring back the 6 month waits for Aspyr & the rest to do a proper version.
Sure, if you consider party games the epitome of gaming... I, and many others however don't. I know plenty of people who bought a Wii with all the hype, and months later they don't play anything. The games lineup it has going aside from a handful of games is utter disposable crap. Third party sales are for the most part garbage, and it doesn't help people buy the Wii for Wii sports and almost Wii sports alone.
./ loves to chirp the "Gameplay not Graphics" line while totally disregarding the fact that PS3 and 360 have both over the Wii - but its easy to hate Sony and MS compared to Nintendo right, even when the Wii is totally disregarding all the "fun" with the exception of a few GameCube ports and the same old Nintendo games you've been playing since the N64. /gamer-rant (who had to deal with 3 dead original Xbox's and a now-dead 360 and a horrendous MS customer support experience
Nintendo got it right in terms of a successful product, but the jury is still out on its quality as a gaming console. It has little to no online capabilities, is yet again a machine strictly for Nintendo games, and aside from selling like hotcakes has yet to convince me what the fuss is about. In a house of five, we have two Wiis and they both go totally unplayed.
All bashing aside, I think Sony got it right. Their machine won't explode on you like the 360, its a future proof, very stable and quiet machine. Now its finally $399, PSN has a huge amount of quality independent games in the market and pipeline for often less than 360 XBLA games cost (not to mention a significantly smaller DRM headache, user swappable hard drive, and no bullshit "Points" unit - things cost dollars and cents and don't trap you into having unspent points remain). Developers are really starting to come around to getting things right with the Cell (see the amazing 1st party Uncharted and Rachet, and Ubi and Crytek developers recently), they have awesome storage capacity in Blu-Ray and a standard Hard Disk, and PSN while not as polished yet as XBL doesn't handicap developers with arbitrary game size-limits thanks to a gimped HDD-less version and keep developers like Epic from allowing free AND user-created content.
All my friends would much rather play Guitar Hero, Rockband, CoD4 than anything on the Wii (and before you mention GH3 or Rockband Wii... there are no downloadable tracks for either which for Rockband is a HUGE missing feature). Additionally, I see way more promise in games like Calling All Cars, PixelJunk Monsters, and Little Big Planet than anything I've seen on the Wii yet. And these games will/do cost around $8 - $10 on PSN.
Then again,
Try using Xbox.com in Safari... its a mess. How their sites are so exceedingly incompatible (anti-compatible?) is ridiculous.
Unless you are playing the Mac or Linux version - where the game is pretty much unplayable garbage. I guess serverside accomplishments are one thing but I think developers like Blizzard and the guys behind Vendetta Online who are doing big multiplatform, native releases are much better than what CCP does with this TransGaming bullshit. Now if only Blizzard would hop on the Linux train considering the game runs in OpenGL already.
I disagree almost entirely. As someone who mostly buys on ebay, but sells occasionally I think this is a horrible idea. Many times, buyers don't even give the seller a chance to resolve things - and I'm not inclined to leave feedback until I know whoever has purchased from me is satisfied and I'm no longer obligated in any way to them. Not that I've had any bad feedback yet, but since my unique feedback isn't even 100 yet I'd rather not something accidental happen between me and a buyer that might screw that up if the buyer happens to be a nitwit.
Perhaps for the same reason that I use emusic.
1) Its cheaper, about $.20 per track with good quality
2) Its instant... can't get a CD on demand without either driving to get it or waiting for shipping
3) I can re-download the tracks any time I want as many times as I want
Although #3 has failed, when the label pulls their artists from emusic (such as happened with Catch 22) I can no longer re-download them even though I did purchase them.
Overall, I've been happy enough to deal with the small shortcomings, though I still do buy many CDs, unless its my favorite bands ever when I can get them from emusic I do so to save money.
Or you can use the google video link, which is the full lecture not broken up.
Randy's Last Lecture
I don't think that'll really be an issue. Seriously, all three consoles are using PowerPC, and chances are their successors will too because it makes backward compatibility easier. You think Sony's ever going with an Intel chip? The console games market is way bigger than the PC market, and I'm sure Havok makes more money from their console business than the PC and it would be foolish for them to ruin that and give the market to competitors like Ageia who would gladly steal it.